Effects of standard treatments on depressive/anxiety symptoms in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: A combination of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and psychological comorbidities can influence the natural course of IBD. A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to examine whether a standard IBD medical therapy without any antipsychotic intervention has beneficial effects on depression/anxiety in IBD patients. Methods: PubMed and Web of Science databases were systematically searched for related literature from their inception to March 2020. The random-effects model was used to calculate the standardized mean difference (SMD). A total of 16 eligible studies were included in the present meta-analysis. Results: Compared with baseline assessments, IBD patients with standard IBD medication had significantly reduced depression assessment scores (pooled SMD = 0.500; 95% confidence interval: 0.207, 0.793; P = 0.001). These results were obtained without any psychological interventions. Additionally, no significant differences in anxiety-related scores were detected between the baseline assessments and the end of therapy assessments (pooled SMD = 0.083; 95% confidence interval: 0.120, 0.285; P = 0.425). The meta-regression and subgroup analyses revealed that differences in assessment tools and medications might be the main source of heterogeneity. Conclusion: Standard IBD treatments can significantly alleviate the depressive symptoms in IBD patients. However, more studies are needed to analyze this association.

Automated summary

Standard IBD treatments can significantly alleviate depressive symptoms in IBD patients, but further research is needed to validate this association.